fittfeRsfrltair
No. 4.
Worker Correspondents
WHAT *y WHERE
WHEN C WHY
HOW
By WILLIAM F. DUNNE.
PRICE 10 CENTS
PUBLISHED FOR
THE WORKERS PARTY OF AMERICA
BY
The Daily Worker Publishing Co.
CHICAGO, ILL.
, ' ." I I ■
Editors
J- Louts EngdaM and Wm. F. Dunne
th?^?l^ nly ****** Communist daily newspaper in
«f 5 uS!7-? ay lt gives an *"»M»t picture of every eten
oven-aa no other newspaper does or would dare to
*J?< i des news BO ^saenUai to the thinking worker
OUTSIDE OF CHICAGO
IN CHICAGO
Ufliversiiy of Texas
The Revolutionary Role of Worker
Correspondents
By WILLIAM P. DUNNE
Section I.
Worker correspondents differ from profes-
sional journalists in that they are part of the
labor and revolutionary movement and fight
actively in the struggles of which they write.
The wider the activity of a worker corre-
spondent in the class struggle, the greater will
be the field covered by his reports. At first the
worker correspondent will find it hard to gather
material. As a worker, ordinary, daily events
of development of the class struggle are famil-
iar to him. He expects these things as the
routine of working class life and sees no news
value in them.
It is this outlook of the worker that makes it
hard for him to write or speak. He is not in-
articulate because of lack of words, but because
he has been taught by capitalism to look upon
the thousand and one tyrannies, inconveniences
and hardships inflicted on the workers as of
little importance — things to be endured without
comment or complaint.
The countless risks of industry, the accidents
7637
to and deaths of workers, even great disasters
taking a huge toll of working class lives, quite
often cause less excitement among the workers
than among the liberal middle class
Why is this?
Because among the workers, deaths and acci-
dents are common things to be expected as part
of the price paid for being allowed to work.
This is the idea drilled into the mass mind by
capitalists and especially by capitalist journal-
ism. The death of the wealthy idler will get
the first page and a streamer headline, but the
death of a worker is either not mentioned at all
or given a half dozen lines.
Journalism is recording and expressing
opinion on contemporary events. Journalism
like everything else in capitalist society, is a
class enterprise.
Journalism is the day by day listing of the
facts of industry and politics and an analysis
of those facts.
Journalism is therefore a class affair just the
same as politics, industry, art and education.
The ruling class puts its stamp on journalism
just as it stamps every other form of social ac-
tivity. It can even be said that more than in
any other from of social expression are the
class lines apparent in journalism.
Not only does the clearly class character of
the capitalist press become obvious to the class
conscious worker, but the most casual observa-
tion shows that every division and sub-division
of the social organism has its journalistic ex-
pression.
The capitalist press itself shades off into in-
numerable organs of separate groups — employ-
ers' and bankers' associations, trade associa-
tions, clubs, special organizations for suppres-
sion of the workers, all have their own publica-
tions.
The middle class has countless journals which
cater to and express the opinions of some par-
ticular group.
Church newspapers and magazines are legion.
In addition to these journals speaking openly
for some vested interest, there are the special
propaganda organs of the ruling class — each
with its own field.
AH of these journals are anti-working class
in character — some of them frankly so, some
of them thinly disguised with the veil of human-
itarianism, and "social welfare,"
Then there are the official organs of the trade
union movement and its various sections and
affiliated bodies — formally opposing the capi-
talist but actually ruled by the ethics and
swayed by the prejudices of capitalism.
The trade union press of the United States is
not a labor press (with a few negligible excep-
tions). It is in reality an aid to capitalism with
its warfare on the communist Party, its espousal
of imperialism, its catering to ignorant preju-
dices, its imitation of capitalist journalism and
its middle class doctrine of "equality of oppor-
tunity and identity of interest."
The Socialist press joins with the official trade
union press, apologizing for capitalism, praising
its parliamentary system and fighting the Com-
munist Party as well as every revolutionary ten-
dency in the working class movement.
There remains the Communist press and it is
for the Communist press we organize and train
worker correspondents.
The Communist press, like the Communist
Party for which it speaks, stands forth as the
only clear challenge to the capitalist press and
the capitalist class.
The Communist Party is the most intelligent,
resolute and disciplined section of the working
class. The Communist press is the most mili-
tant of all the labor press.
To the Communist press the workers and the
working class are always right. It never apolo-
gizes for the working class or attempts to recon-
cile the class conflict. Instead it seeks to en-
courage and broaden it.
The worker correspondents of the Communist
press therefore are not mere observers and re-
porters of the workers' struggles. Their stories
must not only reflect the life and battles of the
working class, but shape their lives and strug-
gles. They are not only the pulse of the move-
ment, but the heart as well.
Worker correspondents of the Communist
press are not only mirrors in which the class
conflicts are reflected, but hammers by whose
blows these conflicts are welded into one battle
line. Their writings must build "The iron bat-
talions of the proletariat. "
Tireless energy is needed by worker corre-
spondents. They secure their information while
engaged in the tasks that capitalism allots them.
Their stories for the most part are written after
the day's toil when both body and mind are
tired. Often they must make special journeys
to get additional facts.
But they can and should write with the hot
breath of the struggle still upon them. Some-
times it will seem to them that they are writing
with their own blood.
But they will learn and they will teach the
working class that no matter how small a thing
it is, if it happens to or affects the workers, it
is important.
The first task of worker correspondents is to
see every event from the class angle and to
make the workers for whom they write view it
the same way. Class pride is the essence of
revolutionary journalism and class pride should
shine from every word and line that a worker
correspondent writes.
Once more!
NOTHING THAT HAPPENS TO THE
WORKERS IS UNIMPORTANT.
The capitalist class and capitalist journalists
pay little attention to the daily tyrannies in-
flicted on the workers. When these things are
noticed, it is only to apologize for, or to justify
them. The leaders and social traitors think
that only certain things are important, but Com-
munists know better. It is by paying attention
to all the ordinary woes of the working class
that Communist journalism demonstrates its
class character.
It is only in the Communist press that the
workers find a knowledge of their smallest
grievances, understanding of the causes of these
grievances and the connection of them with
their struggles as a class.
The capitalist class rules because it is able to
divide the workers and break up their struggles
into isolated conflicts. Worker correspondents
for the Communist press in every industrial cen-
ter, in the factories and shops, in unions and
fraternal organizations, in rural communities,
wherever there are workers, link up these iso-
lated conflicts and give to the working class a
correct picture of the world ruled by capitalism
because the working class is fighting not as a
class, but as individuals and groups.
The Communist press becomes a mass organ
reflecting and molding the struggles of the
workers in the same proportion that these
struggles are recorded and correctly interpreted
by worker correspondents — correspondents who
write of the battles of their class as a sol-
dier writes of the battles which he helps to fight.
Worker correspondents are WAR corre-
spondents^ — they tell of the class war in its
every sector and salient.
An army of worker correspondents means a
powerful Communist press.
A powerful Communist press means a power-
ful Communist Party.
A powerful Communist Party means the Dic-
tatorship of the Working Class — VICTORY FOR
THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION.
"Without a Communist press," said the Sec-
ond Congress of the C. I., "the preparation for
the dictatorship of the proletariat is impossible."
We can say, by virtue of the experience gained
in our struggles since that time, that without
worker correspondents a Communist press is
impossible.
Section IX.
Instructions and Suggestions to
Worker Correspondents
The material furnished by worker correspond-
ents falls under three general classes:
(1) News stories
(2) Special articles dealing with one event
of importance to the labor and revolution-
ary movement.
(3) Interpretative articles on the nature and
progress of the workers' struggles.
NEWS STOEIES
(1) Conditions of employment,
(1) Shop and Job News— Introduction and
effect of speed-up system on the work-
ers, tyrannies of foremen, etc.
(2) Methods of hiring workers— physical
examinations, record systems— black-
listing.
(3) Wages, hours, state of labor market.
NOTE: The utmost accuracy is needed on these
matters.
(2) News of workers 7 struggles.
(a) Strikes and lockouts — Election cam-
paigns.
(b) Attitude of city, county, state and fed-
eral authorities.
(1) Court actions, injunction, passage
of laws against workers, use of po-
lice, troops, special forcible means
of suppression, etc.
(c) Form of organizations of capital-
ists — Political parties.
(1) Activities of employers' as-
sociations, Chambers of Com-
merce^ Commercial clubs, etc.
(2) Use of gunmen, thugs and
spies against workers.
(d) Union activities.
(1) Labor movement — Attitude of
(a) Towards capitalists.
(b) Towards Communists.
(c) Towards Negroes.
(d) Towards foreign born.
(3) Proceedings of Central Labor Council —
State Federations, Conventions.
(a) Proceedings of local unions — election of
officers, wage negotiations, wage agree-
ments, etc.
(4) Attitude and activities of churches.
(1) Attitude and activities of semi-relig-
ious anti-labor organizations like Y. M.
C. A., Knights of Columbus, Boy
Scouts, etc.
(5) Accidents— deaths cmd injuries of workers.
((>) Housing conditions , rents, evictions.
(7). Activities of middle class fascist mid semi-
fascist organisations like Klan } Minute Men
of Constitution, American Legion, Rotary
, Clulys, etc.
(a) Attitude and activities of these
towards Negroes.
(8) Party activities.
(a) Work of Communist Fractions in,
industrial establishments, unions,
co-operatives, among farmers, etc.
WRITING NEWS STORIES
(1) Put the important facts in first paragraph
—WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHO, WHY, should
be told in the first paragraph. The arrangement
i ■
10
can and should be varied but in pure news stories
this rule should seldom be broken.
Sample of this method —
"NEW YORK CITY, May 1st— 500 LONGSHORE-
MEN, MEMBERS OF THE INTERNATIONAL
LONGSHOREMEN'S ASSOCIATION, LOCAL
999, STRUCK THIS MORNING AT PIER 20,
WHEN ORDERED TO LOAD MUNITIONS ON
THE ADMIRAL LINE BOAT TECUMSEH.
THE MUNITIONS WERE FOR THE POLISH
COUNTER REVOLUTIONARY ARMY."
(2) It is better to use short sentences. This
method adds to the force of the narrative
and is a simple style that is both impressive
and easily read.
(a) Be accurate. Get the facts straight.
Learn to know what is important and
put emphasis in this part of the story.
The Communist press, more than any
other press, has to show a detailed and
unquestionable knowledge of the strug-
gles of the workers it records. One or
two inaccurate statements in a story
will be picked on by enemies of the
Communists and the working class and
li
v f
'used to distract the attention of the
workers from the real issues involved.
(3) Don't drag comment into a news story by
the heels. If the story is written properly
it will speak for itself. This does not mean
that all interpretation must be eliminated,
but it does mean that long dissertations are
not necessary and serve merely to detract
from the force of the story.
(4) 500 words and less is the best length for
ordinary news stories. A column of the
Daily Worker, with the type now used, will
take about 660 words. It is therefore evi-
dent that most of the new T s need not run to
more than a quarter or half this length, In
writing hews stories, try to visualize as
much as possible, the space they will occupy
in the paper. Space in a Communist press
is necessarily limited. News stories should
give the essentials only. The best news
writers write briefly.
Color can be given news stories by a few
short sentences dealing with some /phase of
the subject that typifies the situation re~
ported. Sample —
12
■| H| Library
University of Texi
"THE STRIKERS LEFT PICKET^ygtli, mm
DOCK AND THEN MARCHED TO THEIR
HALL SINGING THE INTERNATIONAL
AFTER COMMUNIST MEMBERS OF THE
UNION HAD MADE SHORT SPEECHES,
TELLING THE WORKERS THAT THE MUNI-
TIONS WERE TO BE USED AGAINST THE
WORKING CLASS GOVERNMENT OF SOVIET
RUSSIA."
(5) Technical details,
(a) Write on one side of paper only.
(b) Use typewriter if possible— use triple
space
(c) If stories are written in long hand,
leave a half inch between each line.
(d) Number each page and put at top left
hand corner a short title for story that
will serve to identify it no matter how^
the pages may be mixed.
I (e) MARK ENVELOPE— "NEWS"— AT
LOWER LEFT HAND CORNER.
■(f) Write in sub-heads if story is 200 words
and over.
(g) Mark paragraphs by indenting first line
or by marking first line thus L
13
576370
explanatory and analytical
articles!
These articles should be a combination of news
and interpretation dealing with one subject only.
Try to begin with a sentence that will fix the
attention of the reader. Don't allow your thoughts
to wander. Be convincing.
Write just as if you were talking to one or two
workers whom you want to acquaint with the
facts and have agreed with your conclusions.
Structure of this type of article:
(1) The premise—concise description of gen-'
eral situation and what you intend to prove.
(2) Give facts and interpretation of them.
Make your sustaining argument.
(3) Then draw your conclusions.
These articles should be from 500 to 1,200 words.
General at tides on nature of struggle, forces
involved and progress of struggle.
An article of this kind should be built up out
of the material of a number of news stories. The
main purpose of these articles is to connect the
different struggles with the general class struggle
sufficient number of them to avoi^I the accusation
that the conclusions drawn are based on scanty
evidence.
These articles must display a detailed knowl-
edge of conditions of the workers.
The Party policies and its special campaigns
and tactics must be studied and the article itself
show the application of these to the daily Strug-
s'
The difference between the policies and tactics
of the reactionaries, reformists and the Commun-
ists must be made clear.
These articles should not run over 2,000 words.
The facts must be clear and there should
be a
r ,
14
15
i
Section III.
Of all the news which the Communist press
carries that of the conditions of the workers in
industry is most important.
The working class spends from eight to
twelve hours out of the twenty-four at labor
from which all joy has long since departed. Mod-
ern industry has made of work a deadly, brain-
sickening monotony — a penalty to be paid for
the right to live. The machine drives the work-
er at an ever-faster speed. The pressure of the
capitalist and all his underlings on the backs of
the worker becomes heavier. The robbery be-
comes more and more shameless and protests
meet with severer punishment..
Under these conditions the workers in indus-
try sweat and suffer.
What do they think of the giant corporations
which dominate their lives? What doi they think
of the petty bosses who drive them for the cap-
italists in return for a few cents more added to
their day's pay?
What do they think of the ruthless system
that scraps human beings more callously than
it does the high-priced machines?
16
What do the workers think of the inhuman
manner in which they are numbered and herded
in the gigantic hives of modern industry? What
do they think of the filthy holes in which they
have to work and live?
What do they think of the risks they are
forced, to take as a part of their job?
What do they think of the company "welfare
systems/' the hospitals and company doctors
and the mad rush of the claim agent to get a
release for the company the moment a worker
comes back to consciousness after being
crushed or mangled?
What do they think of the policemen, the com-
pany guards, the spies, the courts, the strike-
breakers, the detectives, the use of troops, of the
whole state machinery of terrorization and sup-
pression organized for and owned by the cap-
italists?
What do they think of their miserable wages?
Of wage-cuts? Of unions? Of the lack of un-
ions?
What do the workers propose to do about
these things? Do they accept them as inevit-
able? Are there signs of revolt? What form
does their resentment take? In what manner
is revolt expressed?
When the Communist press knows and tells of
these things it is really a mass organ.
Without worker corrsepondents it cannot be
a true reflection of the lives of the masses.
17
Such news is not hard to get but to get it one
must be a worker. When he writes he becomes
a worker correspondent.
Any instructions as to how and what to write,
however, can do nothing more than give the
reader a general idea of the way of approaching
his task. The way to learn to write is to begin
to write and after all there is nothnig mysterious
about the process. Anyone who can think clearly
will express himself well in his own language if
he gives a little care to certain necessary things.
The principal requirement is to have something
to say. Say it as clearly as possible— and then
stop. More speeches and articles are ruined by
the speaker or writer continuing after he has ex-
hausted his subject than by anything else.
Let us suppose that a worker has been injured
by the lack of a safety device. Tell how the
worker was injured, why he was injured, the rea-
son why no safety device was installed, the effect
of the accident on the other workers. If there is
a union in the shop show how it has neglected to
fight for safety devices, if it has, if there is no
union show how the need of one is made plain
by the accident. But do not preach. Let the
facts speak for themselves as much as possible.
Strive to avoid "revolutionary phraseology" as
much as possible. Said Lenin :
18
The revolutionary phrase consists of the
repetition of revolutionary slogans, without
taking into account the objective circum-
stances of the present curve of events and the
present situation. Wonderfully captivating
and intoxicating slogans, ivithout any firm
ground beneath them, are the essence of the
revolutionary phrase.
We must never forget that the revolutionary
slogans of the Communist Party voiced by the
Communist press have connection with the lives
of the masses only after systematic preparation
of the masses by struggles around their immedi-
ate demands.
To throw revolutionary slogans into the labor
movement when the masses have not been pre-
pared to support them by Communist agitation,
centering around the daily struggles, building the
mass movement on a firm foundation, is like
placing one stick of dynamite under Gibraltar
with the expectation of demolishing it.
Says the Agitation and Propaganda depart-
ment of the Communist International in its criti-
cism of the weaknesses of the Communist press :
Two different things may be comprehended
under "revolutionary phrase" 'in the Com-
munist press. There are Communist papers
19
which invariably follow the principle of
employing the strongest and most urgent
phraseology which they are capable of com-
piling, and which give the impression that
the writers must have been in a state of high
fever.
Viewed as agitation this fails to make any
effect upon the masses, repels them, and has
besides this the disadvantage that when the
newspaper had to deal with some special sit-
uation, it finds its vocabulary exhausted.
A second variety of the revolutionary
phrase is the ceaseless employment of Com-
munist slogans without any internal connec-
tion with the lives of the workers. FRE-
QUENTLY THE SIMPLE NARRATION
OF FACTS IS MORE EFFECTIVE THAN
THE ARTIFICIAL AND WEARISOME
REPETITION OF COMMUNIST SLO-
GANS.
MORE FAITH IN THE THINKING
POWER OF THE READERS.
"Less intellectual talk, closer contact with life,
said Lenin.
And again :
" Why is it not possible to speak in ten to
twenty lines, instead of 200 to 400, of simple,
well known, obvious matters, already fairly
20
n
digested by the masses . . . V 9 (Lenin,
writing on "The Character of Our Newspa-
pers,)
One final statement:
The tasks of the worker correspondents are
most important and responsible ones. The work-
ers who read their news stories and articles will
judge the press and the party largely by them
and the mistake must not be made of thinking
that these readers are not critical. They are.
They read — and they judge. They look with an
eagle eye for errors and even tho errors may
escape the editors they will not be missed J>y the
workers.
Our press therefore must be as accurate as our
program. It is with this knowledge and sense
of responsibity flowing from it that the Commun-
ist worker correspondents who form the nucleus
of the broader groups of non-party correspond-
ents, must approach their job of recording the
daily history of the class struggle, popularizing
the party organ and thereby building a mass
Communist press.
21
Examples of Worker Correspondence
Appended are a few examples of the stories
sent in by worker correspondents and published
in the Daily Worker. They are as neear perfect
as our correspondents are capable of turning out
at present, they have been edited very little, some
of them not at all, and can be studied to advan-
tage by workers who are just beginning to write.
The quality that all these examples have in
common is that they tell of something that has
happened affecting large numbers of workers, tell
it clearly and in simple language (with one ex-
ception which will be explained a little farther
on) make certain easily understood suggestions
and are entirely devoid of any flamboyancy such
as was mentioned and criticized in the preceding
pages.
The sole exception is the story using the phrase
"de mortuis nil nisi bunkum," a clever pun on
the old Latin saying "de mortuis nil nisi bonum —
speak nothing but good of the dead." It would be
a hardhearted editor indeed that would prevent
a worker correspondent putting over this witty
jibe altho foreign phrases are generally to be dis-
regarded.
22
It will be noticed that these examples deal
with the building, coal mining, and steel indus-
tries, a public function staged by the hangers-on
of the capitalist class and party activity. The
industrial stories bring in the attitude of the
union officials as well as the conditions of the
industry, the story of the Harding statue brings
in the activity of the boy scouts, the story of
party activity brings in something of the condi-
tions of the workers and the attitude of the
capitalists and authorities, etc.
These are concrete illustrations of how to link
up life with the Communist press and will serve
better than many thousand words of instruction.
23
Steel Worker Victimized
by "Safety First"
en Shop and Speed Up in Pittsburgh
By THOMAS (Worker Correspondent)
PITTSBURGH, April 20.— "Safety first" commit-
tees have become the pet angel of the steel trust. In
reality they are nothing hut "open shop" propa-
ganda committees trying to force their dope on the
workers, nothing is ever given for the benefit of the
workers. Here is how it works out in the mill
where I am employed.
There are paid men who go around the mill
every day of the week preaching how much better
the place is now than it was ten years ago, and try
to convince the workers that they are in heaven, but
it is the opposite, it is the worst hell it is possible
to imagine.
"Safety Committee" Always Blames the Workers;.
This safety committee is supposed to try to cut
down accidents and give reasons when an accident
takes place so that men could avoid them in the
future. That is what they say they are doing, but
there is nothing of the sort. What they do is to
put the blame on the shoulders of the workers, for
every accident which takes place. Regardless of
whose fault it is, the workers are called careless.
There was a young worker fired because he had
received a few cuts on his hands in one week. An-
other was fired because he refused to handle heavy
bars with an injured hand. There was another
worker whose job it was to oil the rolls over wnich
24
white hot rails run. He could not oil them while
the rails were running, so he told the foreman to
stop them, which he did, but not long enough for the
worker to finish the job with the result that a hot
rail went clean thru his body and killed him.
At the next "safety meeting" a paid speaker of
the company came and stated that a man had been
killed, and as much as the company regretted it, it
is mainly thru his own carelessness and that he
had no business in that spot; this, altho he had been
ordered there by the foreman, and then the speaker
went on to state the difference in the accidents now
and ten years ago. <
"Ail Time Want More Work."
A good many of the foreign born workers can see
that the s # afety meeting is a speed-up meeting. I
spoke to one today and altho he could not under-
stand the English language very good or even
speak it. I asked him what he thought qf the meet-
ings he said, "All time want more work." So you
see the impression that he got.
The company has its spies all over the plant who
will report any talk of a union that they hear, and
some excuse is immediately found to fire the one
who advocates organization.
, The wages are so low that the workers have barely
enough to live on and if any sickness takes place
they have to trust to charity of others. If you are
injured too bad to be able to walk to work, the com-
pany will send the ambulance to fetch you and take
you home again in the evening in order to keep dis-
content at a minimum.
The main point is they are afraid the men will or-
ganize once again to better their conditions. They
have done it once and they will do it again.
25
Bricklayers' Officials Work
for the Bosses
By UNION BRICKLAYER (Worker Correspondent)
NEW YORK CITY, April— At a conference of the
building industry held here pertaining to the sup-
posed tie up of $22,000,000 worth of building con-
struction, it was brought out plainly and positively
to the notice of the workers, how the bricklayers
and plasterers' "representatives" sell them to both
the sub-contractors and general contractors.
This happens whenever it chances to meet with
these representatives' financial approval, as in the
southern affair, and not in the interest of the work-
ers. As William Bowen, president* of the Bricklay-
ers and Plasterers union stated at the said confer-
ence, he was working for the sub-contractors' in-
terest, and not for the union, as quoted in the New
York World.
Union bricklayers recall the scabby affair of the
same bunch of labor fakers, Bowen, Breece and com-
pany, when they used the union members of Local
37 of New York City as scabs against the Local of
Rochester, N. Y., paying their fare to Rochester to
scab on their fellow workers for the interest of their
masters—who paid them well for the faithful per-
formance of their "duty."
Again, union bricklayers and plasterers recall
Vice-President Thornton's action in January, 1924,
selling Local No. 1 members of Philadelphia to Mr.
Adkins, a scab contractor.
And again union men recall the Boston Open Shop
Drive in 1921, when the official gang allowed the
26
big boss, whom they pretended to fight, to estab-
lish the open shop on our eastern local unions
It is laughable to think that these labor fakers
can be bought so cheaply by the masters and still
expect the bricklayers and plasterers to look up to
them as labor leaders, when the very same master
who buys them so cheaply tells the world thru their
capitalist papers that they are strikebreakers
^ T . he ^ Ne ^ ? ork Journal of April 17, 1925, stated
that the Bricklayers and Plasterers International
Union imported their so-called union men into Syra-
cuse, New York, to break a strike and prevent the
workers there from getting a living wage.
The officials of this union are among the champion
strikebreakers of the U. S. A.
Marble Statue Generates
Hot Air for 2,500
De Mortuis Nihil Nisi Bunkum
By WORKER CORRESPONDENT
SEATTLE, Wash., April 19.— A monument to the
late President Harding was unveiled here. It stands
in Woodland Park where Harding gave the oath of
allegiance to 30,000 boy scouts, and was presented
by the Elks lodge. Only 2,500 were present this
time, the reputation of Harding having been sadly
tarnished since he was here.
Three Elks presented the monument to the city,
and two professional politicians, acting for the city
accepted it. The boy scouts had the honor (?) of
paying for it.
Among the bunk peddled out by the speakers
27
were such statements as: "nothing better, cart be
done by the Elks than to teach love o£ country to
boys . . . Harding was one of the greatest ex
amnles of the greatness of American manhood
S from a democrat, ex-socialist-wonder what he
Hnnkes of Daugherty, Forbes, etc.) . . . ixi«
Ame k rican £ peo P le S took y 'him from their midst and ex-
alted him . . . because he was so common
Common what?) and was it "the American people
who Zse him in that room at the Blackstone hotel
at two o'clock one morning in June, iy^u.
"Let each of us dedicate ourselves anew to our
country, to respect its laws and defend its liberty
<tS* from a bard boiled republican congressman
who has been one of. the most consistent foes ol die
workers in congress.)
? Needless to say there were many revealing inci-
dents of Harding's life that the speakers forgot to
mention "De mortals nihil nisi bunkum" was their
motto. And so Teapot Dome, the house of K. St.,
Charley Forbes, etc. were not mentioned.
Our Party Activity
The Spirit of the Communists in Northern
Minnesota.
In a country where the boundless, gloomy forests
of Northern Minnesota repeat the angry song of the
frozen Canadian hills, together with the spring,
grows and increases the influence of Communism
The bosses and their lackeys, exasperated, beat
the alarm. When, five months ago, their local news-
papers wrote that the red propaganda, after the big
miners' strike in 1917, is dead in the iron range
28
(altho in the same time we organized our English
branch in South Hibbing) they were celebrating the
victory of the reaction. Poor bosses! Soon their
illusions had to die and the newspaper pointed out
the opposite, altho their police were watching the
actions of the Communist leaders very close.
The fifty-two branches in Saint Louis county, the
heart of the mining industry, are awaking, their ac-
tivity has been stimulated by the trip of Comrade
C. A. Hathaway, district organizer. The language
branches are uniting their efforts instead of being
disunited as before.
It is natural that in such a state of affairs their
activity will be weakened. There was no conscious-
ness that the growing of our party and its influence
depend on our co-operative actions.
After the first public meeting in Chisholm I was
surprised at hearing a few unknown workers calling
me: "Hello, Comrade."
The result was workers joined our party. Each
Communist effort, each action is not without results
and knowing that we have to double our energy.
Of course, the reaction don't sleep and that 'is
why we have to be ready to meet it.
Is there any power to stop a real Communist ?
No. There is a fresh example— Comrade Stainslav
Lanzutsky.
GEO. 2AICK0V.
Union Officials Ignore Miners'
Job Complaints
Agreement Works Only One Way in Mines
By A MINER (Worker Correspondent)
BENTLEYVILLE, Pa., April 20— Many of the fa-
vorable conditions formerly prevailing have been
lost by the miners in District Five since the officials
29
signed the last agreement. The excuse given for
not fighting the company is bad times and fear that
the company will shut down the mines. On the
Bentleyville Branch there are ten mines, only four
of which are working, but still these cowardly offi-
cials say it is better than nothing.
The first condition that the miners lost was a rule
in the mines that if a man worked in a wet place
he received $5.00 extra in two weeks. One day the
company cut off this extra $5.00 and the men re-
fused to work unless they could get their well
earned money.
Wet Work Not Paid as Agreed.
They took it up with their committee but failed
to reach any agreement with the bosses. They
then took it up with the board members and were
given the decision that if the bosses wouldn't pay,
that they would have to put the men in dry places.
This the men accepted right away. The pit boss
put them in other places and hired new men who
had been out of work about six months, These men
were glad to get jobs under any conditions and none
of them received one cent extra for working in
water. That was the settlement made by our
"good" officials.
The Drivers' Complaint Ignored.
Our drivers had been used to start at 6:30 in the
morning to leave the stable The mine developed
so far that the drivers could not reach their work-
ing places at seven and the company fired one
driver for not starting at 7:00 o'clock as the agree-
ment called for. In fact some of these drivers had
a good hour's way to travel underground before they
reached their working places.
This was also taken up with the company without
any result, so they called upon their board member
30
for help. He notified them that if they could not
reach their working places at seven they should
leave the stable earlier or else he could not do any-
thing for them in case they got fired and now the
boss takes care of the firing part.
Waiting for Cars — To Help the Boss.
The four mines still operating are only working
from two to four days a week, so th^ bosses are
trying to get as much coal out on these days as pos-
sible. To increase their tonnage they have some
picked men working every day, mostly the bosses'
favored men. They fill all the empty cars in the
mine from the coal knocked down by the miners
the day before and when the latter come to work
they have to wait two to four hours before they get
their first car.
The miners called a special meeting to stop this
practice and also to stop the method used by the
bosses of doubling up two men in one place. They
elected a committee to meet with the bosses, but
as usual they failed to get any results.
Again they asked their board member to come
and help them in their fight but he told them to do
the best they could, he could not help them because
the company would shut down the mine if they stop
these practices. The company refused to give the
miners any satisfaction because they know they can
get much more favorable decisions from the officials.
No Protection from the Union.
Every day some new bad condition and not a
word of protest from our officials because they say
we have an agreement for three years and we should
be glad we are working. Ho W ever the miners are
beginning to see the point and getting ready for
the fight, if the officials will not fight the miners are
apt to take matters into. their own hands.
31
Recruiting Worker Correspondents
The worker correspondents must teach other
workers to write for the Communist press.
There can never be too many worker corre-
spondents, never too many letters and news
stories of the workers and their battles pouring
into the Communist press from every spot
where men and women toil. There must be no
"Communist purity" in the selection of worker
correspondents. Non-Party workers must be en-
couraged to write for the Communist press of
their views of the daily struggles of vital impor-
tance.
One of the tests of the ability with which a
worker correspondent carries on his task will
be the number of his fellow-workers whom he
persuades to write. In the United States with
its efficient system of industrial spying, there
must be many workers to take the place of those
who are blacklisted and persecuted for record-
ing the truth about capitalist industry and gov-
ernment.
The worker correspondents form the most
important line of communication for the Com-
munist press and the Communist Party and we
must not allow these communications to be in-
34
terrupted. New recruits must always be at
hand.
Writing of the struggle, distributing the Com-
munist press, teaching other workers to write
— is this ail?
Not quite.
The Communist Party will be judged by its
worker, correspondents and they can, by faith-
fully serving the workers and thereby advancing
the cause of Communism, become valuable aids
in the organizing work of the party.
They will help to build the party and bring
it its best material— the workers in the basic
industries where the oppression is the heaviest,
the key groups of the working class that must
be won for the Communist Party and the revo-
lution if ever the dictatorship of the proletariat
is to be more than a dream.
It is no dream but upon the Communist press
and its worker correspondents is the heavy re-
sponsibility of making it a reality.
35
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What **
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